Kota Kinabalu: Osteopathy is an alternative medicine for better health and wellbeing which is not popular in Malaysia but Jane Sullivan intends to change that if she has the means.

Having been practising as an osteopathic physician in England for 30 years, Jane, hopes to start with setting up an osteopathy clinic in Sabah to assist anyone in this regard.

She was presenting a talk explaining what Osteopathy is and how it can help children with autistic disorder to cope. "It does not use any medicine (to consume) but it has everything to do with touch and feel.

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It is similar to chiropractor, but osteopath is much gentler and the treatment takes a lot longer," she said, adding the focus is on low back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, headache, etc.

"When I came to Malaysia 8 years ago, I was surprised to find hardly anyone knew what it is," she said to 30 parents (attendees) at the Cana Café in Taman Fortuna, Penampang. Some of the parents had children with autistic disorder.

She said the approach is more on touching the right spot in the spine and other parts and slow massage is performed upon the person. It is much gentler compared to other methods, she said.

The physician (osteopathy) focused on the muscles and spines, with the aim to treat the structural of the bones. It promotes the circulatory and the body's nervous system, hence strengthen the musculoskeletal framework, she added.

"Basically, the treatments are carried out using only hands by massaging on the patients.

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This method is very appropriate for children who have some kind of disorder," she stated. Apart from osteopath method, certain oil such as lavender oil is also good to apply to children with autistic to calm them down.

"There are certain oil good for massage on these children diagnosed with autism," she stated. Back in England, she had treated a lot of children with the disorder.

Used to own a clinic with 20 different practitioners back in England, today Jane said she had retired from her profession and followed her husband to Sabah venturing into other field.

However, she is ready to assist anyone who plans to set up osteopathy clinic in Sabah.

"I have treated a 5-day-old baby and I had also treated a 100-year-old lady. So there is no restriction to age. This method can be applied to anyone, any age.

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However, treating a minor is different from treating an advanced age person," she said.

She informed that she is the only one with the qualification in Kota Kinabalu and another one in Kuching while there are five others practising in nation capital.

She said there is a plan to set up an Osteopath society with the main objective to promote the profession and to create awareness on its importance in which she would give her assistance.

Jane also conducts swimming exercise (lessons) for children with the disorder.

Part of the half-day session was also a soap-making class where 30 participants benefited from the lesson taught by Caroline Manson. - Lorena Binisol